HEAT, FIRE, WATER How Climate Change Has Created a Public Health Emergency Second Edition
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By Alan H. Lockwood, MD, FAAN, FANA HEAT, FIRE, WATER How Climate Change Has Created a Public Health Emergency Second Edition Alan H. Lockwood, MD, FAAN, FANA First published in 2019. PSR has not copyrighted this report. Some of the figures reproduced herein are copyrighted. Permission to use them was granted by the copyright holder for use in this report as acknowledged. Subsequent users who wish to use copyrighted materials must obtain permission from the copyright holder. Citation: Lockwood, AH, Heat, Fire, Water: How Climate Change Has Created a Public Health Emergency, Second Edition, 2019, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. Acknowledgments: The author is grateful for editorial assistance and guidance provided by Barbara Gottlieb, Laurence W. Lannom, Anne Lockwood, Michael McCally, and David W. Orr. Cover Credits: Thermometer, reproduced with permission of MGN Online; Wildfire, reproduced with permission of the photographer Andy Brownbil/AAP; Field Research Facility at Duck, NC, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers HEAT, FIRE, WATER How Climate Change Has Created a Public Health Emergency PHYSICIANS FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY U.S. affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Recipient of the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize 1111 14th St NW Suite 700, Washington, DC, 20005 email: [email protected] About the author: Alan H. Lockwood, MD, FAAN, FANA is an emeritus professor of neurology at the University at Buffalo, and a Past President, Senior Scientist, and member of the Board of Directors of Physicians for Social Responsibility. He is the principal author of the PSR white paper, Coal’s Assault on Human Health and sole author of two books, The Silent Epidemic: Coal and the Hidden Threat to Health (MIT Press, 2012) and Heat Advisory: Protecting Health on a Warming Planet (MIT Press, 2016). About Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and climate change: PSR is a non-profit 501(c)(3) scientific and educational organization. It was founded in 1961 when a small group of physicians determined there could be no medical response to a nuclear war and that such a war could lead to the end of civilization as it was known. Articles published in the New England Journal of Medicine were followed by symposia in major cities and countless presentations to medical audiences, civic organizations, churches, and many others. The presenters maintained a sharp focus - there was no effective treatment for nuclear war and therefore it must be prevented. As the Cold War faded, PSR expanded its mission to include other threats to global survi val. T he sub seque nt cli mate c hange campai gn “Death by Degrees” was carried to many states. Health effects of environmental degradation and climate change were conveyed by numerous reports including Coal’s Assault on Human Health, Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Frackin g , Saving Energy, Saving Lives, Too Dirty, Too Dangerous: Why Health Professionals Reject Natural Gas, The Clean Air Act: a Proven Tool for Healthy Air, and others. This report is a part of PSR’s health leadership on climate change. PSR is committed to the fundamental precept of public health: prevention is always superior to treatment. HEAT, FIRE, WATER HOW CLIMATE CHANGE HAS CREATED A PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY Alan H. Lockwood, MD, FAAN, FANA CONTENTS Front Matter Summary .......................................... i Introduction Foreword .................................... 1 Climate Change is a Public Health Emergency . 2 Heat .............................................. 8 Fire.............................................. 13 Water ............................................ 17 Regional Impacts ................................... 27 1.5°C versus 2°C: Why It Matters ...................... 38 Conclusions ....................................... 41 Glossary and Abbreviations ........................... 44 Reference list ...................................... 47 Handout .......................................... 55 HEAT, FIRE, WATER: How Climate Change Has Created a Public Health Emergency Summary Climate change affects the health of all Americans - right now. There are no exceptions. Although needed adaptation will reduce risks for all, only prompt, significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will stave off a crescendoing public health emergency. Children, the elderly, and those with pre-existing conditions or who are socially the most vulnerable will be the most susceptible to the ravages of climate change. HEAT: The earth is hotter now than at any time since the beginning of the industrial revolution. Records fall each year. There is no clear end to the warming that is under way. Adaptation is a needed and proven lifesaver. • Heat illnesses were the leading cause of weather-related deaths between 1988 and 2017. • The 1995 Chicago heat wave killed around 740 and 70,000 died in the 2003 European heat wave. • More numerous and more severe heat waves are inevitable. • By 2100 there will be between 2 and 3 times as many days when temperatures are over 95°F. • Parts of the earth will become uninhabitable. • Heat-related yields of corn and other crops may fall 80 percent by 2100. Rocketing prices, famine, food riots, civil unrest, and large refugee populations are likely. Things will be worse in El Niño years. FIRE: Over 73,000 wildfires occur in the U.S. annually, a number that has been relatively constant for 30 years. But since 2000 about 6.9 million acres have burned annually, double the area consumed in the 1990s. • 85 percent of wildfires are caused by human activity exacerbated by climate-related drought and pests. • Immediate fire effects include deaths, injuries, and property damage. Paradise, California, was obliterated. • Wildfire locations become hazardous waste sites. • Downwind air pollution triggers asthma, worsening of COPD, acute heart attacks, and strokes, and increases long-term cancer risks. Emergency room visits and hospitalizations rise. • West-coast fires led to increases in ozone on the East Coast that exceeded EPA standards. • Worldwide wildfires cause over 300,000 annual deaths, a toll highest during El Niño years. WATER: Sea levels are rising faster than expected, storms are more violent, floods and droughts affect millions, as warm moist weather fosters the spread of vectors of tropical diseases. • Hurricane Harvey dumped 50 inches of rain on Houston, TX, Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, worse is ahead. • High sea levels and storms combined to yield storm surges that flooded NY City during Superstorm Sandy. • After Sandy FEMA paid $1.4 billion 179,016 individuals and households in New Jersey and New York. • A 0.9 m sea level rise will displace 4.2 million Americans, 13 million if oceans rises twice as much. • Some island nations will disappear completely. REGIONAL EFFECTS: U.S. regions will experience toxins from algal blooms, more ragweed pollen, Zika, West Nile Fever, dengue, severe thunderstorms with tornadoes, “king tides,” flooding of low-lying coastal areas, intra-state and interstate climate refugees, mud and landslides, saltwater intrusions on water supplies, the loss of water for irrigation and/or drinking as glaciers, rivers, and aquifers dry up, and much more. 1.5°C IS CRUCIAL: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change wrote that limiting global warming to 1.5°C “is projected to lower the impacts on terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal ecosystems and retain more of their services to humans” including health. “Rapid and far-reaching transitions ... unprecedented in terms of scale ...” are required. PREVENTION IS IMPERATIVE Prevention is a fundamental precept of medicine. We must mitigate climate change by curtailing greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to change by strengthening the public health infrastructure. This requires political leadership from the top down at federal, state, and local levels and bottom-up activism that demands change. Surveys indicate that this is what the public wants, but so far knowledge has not been an adequate stimulus to act. This must change. There are no alternative facts. Healthcare providers have a professional responsibility to use our medical knowledge to deal with this growing healthcare emergency. We may not get another chance . Physicians for Social Responsibility, 1111 14th Avenue NW, Washington D.C., 20005, www.psr.org i FOREWORD he adoption of the 2015 Paris Agreement by virtually every nation on earth was hailed widely as a critical first step toward mitigation and adaptation to climate change. However the initial Tsense of optimism has not been matched by a sense of urgency and deeds. Carbon dioxide emissions are still increasing. Time is not our friend. The increased need to combat climate change is reflected in two landmark studies. Four years ago the authors of the Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change wrote that “tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century (emphasis added).”1 The more recent Lancet Countdown concludes that “trends in climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerabilities show an unacceptably high level of risk for the current and future health of populations across the world (emphasis added).”2 While the scientific community responded to climate change with an outpouring of research, the health community has remained largely silent. The authors of the Lancet Countdown tallied around 43,000 articles in the general area of climate change that were published in 2017.2 But only four percent